They sail to the imperial island where Yana was born. Seasick, Yana accepts ginger pastilles from an Oxman, who asks if she serves the Raven—one of the eight animal Guardians, the deities of the Orrun empire—when she displays impressive historical knowledge. Despite her ancestral link to the Guardian, she does not.

A pulley system brings them up the island’s cliff face, where there is the Mirror Bridge. The Guardian Gate looms at the end—giant wooden doors painted with icons of the Eight Guardians: The fox, raven, tiger, ox, bear, monkey, hound, and dragon. Yana has always felt drawn to the Monkey, the Guardian of the Arts, Festivals, and Games. She had planned to visit the temple that morning before the guards arrived.

The Oxman, Fenn Fedala, pins an ox brooch to his chest, revealing himself as the emperor’s High Engineer. He tells Yana he will be in the orchards if she needs him. Sergeant Worthy escorts the family to the Palace of the Awakening Dragon.

Bersun greets them in the inner sanctum. Frescoes by Shimmer Arbell depict the Eight Guardians, forming the phrase, “Seven times have the Guardians saved Orrun.” The ceiling suggests the next Return of the Guardians will destroy it.

Bersun presents a scroll signed by Rivenna Glorren, abbess of the Tiger Monastery, who offers Yana a place on behalf of her late father. It has always been Ruko’s dream to follow in their father’s footsteps as a Tiger warrior, and he pleads with Yana to give him the opportunity. She takes it for herself and Ruko objects, revealing that she’s kept their father’s colors—the embroidered silk band worn by those competing for the throne. Their father had made her promise to keep them safe and told her he was going to steal the throne. Though she was only eight at the time, the crime is still treason.

Bersun offers mercy: life in the House of Mist and Shadows. He declares that Ruko still cannot take her place at the monastery. When Ruko protests, Bersun drags him to the throne, forces him to sit upon it, and gives him the power to decide. Ruko must choose between sending his sister into exile and taking her place in the Tiger Monastery, or showing mercy to her and forfeiting their place at the monastery. He chooses to send his sister into exile. As their mother cries over Yana, Ruko steels himself for his journey toward the throne.

An omniscient narrator—the Raven—flies from the eighth palace, where it witnessed Yana’s exile, toward the Raven palace. It lands on the balcony belonging to Junior Archivist Neema Kraa.

High Commander Hol Vabras visits, bringing materials for Neema to transcribe two copies of Yana’s exile order. He takes interest in her research into Ketuan Folk Tales. Vabras completely ignores the presence of Neema’s friend and lover, Cain Ballari, a commoner from Scartown who met Neema in childhood, but became a Fox of Anat-russir (the Fox monastery). Cain expresses disgust that Neema is even considering writing the order of exile for innocent Yana. However, Neema is determined to write it because refusing would end her life at court, and she’s not willing to give that up.

Cain warns her there is a line she should not cross. Neema, in turn, judges him and his profession as an imperial assassin. Rather than arguing, Cain leaves. He invites her to meet him at the quay in two hours if she would rather leave with him. Neema instead begins writing the Order of Exile and does not meet him.

The narrative jumps ahead to eight years later. Every morning, Neema is woken up by Pink-Pink, the chameleon that randomly showed up at the palace three years prior. Today she wakes late on Festival Eve, the day Emperor Bersun plans to hand over the throne after 24 years to one of the seven contenders from the monasteries. She realizes Pink-Pink is missing.

Tomorrow the contenders will compete in fights and Trials to win the throne. Afterward, Neema will accompany Bersun to Annat-garra—the Bear monastery in Ketu—where he will become the new abbot after the death of Brother Lanrik and Neema will help him write his official memoirs.

While searching for Pink-Pink, Neema passes her old abandoned apartment. Yasila is on the balcony. Since Yana’s exile, Yasila has renounced the Valit name, estranging herself from her son Ruko. The emperor restored her fortune and title as Princess, as she is a direct descendant of the Raven empress Yasthala. Though Yasila briefly left the island, she eventually returned so the emperor’s medical staff could care for her youngest daughter, Nisthala, who’s been ill for years. Neema wonders who Yasila might be meeting.

High Engineer Fenn Fedala approaches to ask about Festival preparations. Neema mentions Yasila on the balcony, but Fenn dismisses it. Valits are trouble, he says. Best to forget she saw anything.

Neema meets her new assistant, Benna Edge, who is from Westhaven—the territory bordering the poisoned forest of Dolrun, where people die young.

When Benna hears Neema’s chameleon is missing, she offers to search for it while Neema attends the festivities. She assumes Neema will go to the afterparties, and Neema lets her believe it rather than admit the truth: She was not invited to any. With the emperor abdicating, “they could snub her without risk of reprisal” (68).

The emperor’s High Justice, Kindry Rok, summons Neema to speak with the Raven contender, Gaida. Neema and Gaida have never been friends; in fact, they’ve nearly always disliked each other. Though Neema graduated top of their class, High Justice Yaan Rack favored Gaida and offered her a court position. Rack was later accused of conspiracy after Andren’s rebellion, and was executed along with his family and several members of his office. Gaida chose Rack as her Raven name to honor him, “ruining her chance of a life at court” (73), yet remained popular enough to be chosen as the Raven contender.

Gaida recently learned her mother had an affair with Yaan Rack and that he is her biological father. When she visited his remaining relative, an elder sister, she discovered paperwork from before his death calling for Neema’s expulsion from the Raven monastery. She plans to inform Kindry Rok of this tomorrow, which will likely mean Neema will lose her position and any chance at a future Raven career.

Neema recalls her one and only meeting with Rack, an informational interview prior to her graduation. Rather than ask him questions, she critiqued her time at the monastery and commented on what could be improved in terms of diversity and inclusion of commoners. This annoyed Rack, who told Neema she had wasted the honor of his time with complaints. When he incorrectly quoted a text and she corrected him, he became enraged and expelled her.

Before he could act on Neema’s expulsion, Andren Valit led a coup against the emperor and Rack was executed. Neema was thus spared from expulsion, for no one but her and Rack knew of his intentions. She took her Raven name—Neema Kraa—and accepted a position at the Imperial Library.

At the opening party for the Festival, Neema faces Cain for the first time in years. Though Fox emperors have historically been disastrous, Neema admits what a remarkable feat it would be if Cain won—a Commoner on the throne for the first time.

She surveys the other contenders: Tala Talaka, an Ox; Katsan Brundt, a Bear; and Shal Worthy, a Hound. The Tiger contender, Ruko Valit, arrives last, causing a stir. The infamous cursed blade Hurun-tooth hangs at his hip. He beckons Neema over.

Ruko has visited the imperial archives and saw Neema’s work on Yana’s Order of Exile. The name has been cut out—something only done once death is confirmed. Neema says the body has been seen. Ruko compliments her brushwork before the emperor’s advisers arrive. Among them are Fenn Fedala, Kindry Rok, Hal Vabras, and Princess Yasila.

Yasila takes the space beside Ruko—her estranged son—and Neema. She mutters something under her breath. Neema suddenly cannot move, speak, or breathe until the spell releases her. Ignoring Fenn’s earlier warning, Neema tells Yasila she saw her on the balcony earlier.

At the feast, Neema seats herself beside Lady Harmony, sister of the late artist Shimmer Arbell. Hoping to interview her for a future book on Shimmer’s masterpiece Dedication to the Eight, Neema tries to discuss Shimmer, but Lady Harmony refuses. Soon Lady Harmony switches seats with her son Havoc, the Monkey contender, so she can sit with her husband. Havoc is friendlier but too young to remember much about Shimmer.

Emperor Bersun gives a speech honoring Yasthala. Once a cruel ruler whose empire suffered famine, disease, and brutal labor camps, she was visited by the Raven, who showed her visions of Orrun’s destruction—the Last Return of the Eight. Disguised, Yasthala traveled the empire and witnessed the suffering she caused. She then fought a five-year war to end tyranny and ultimately opened the monasteries to “anyone worthy of a place, no matter their background” (112).

Bersun believes expanding those reforms for Commoners is his greatest achievement. He asks the contenders to swear publicly to continue them. All agree except Ruko Valit. Bersun ties embroidered color bands around each contender’s arm. The Dragon contingent then enters, led by Jadu—Servant of the Dragon and ruler of Helia for 60 years—to renounce their right to compete.

After they leave, Gaida approaches with musicians, claiming Neema forgot the tradition of the Raven contender performing the emperor’s favorite song. She learned Bersun’s from his brother Gedrun and performs it, moving Bersun to tears. Furious at the ambush, Bersun strips Neema of her position and orders her to take the last boat to the mainland the next day.

Neema returns to Raven palace in shame, where her servant Benna has prepared a bath for her as promised. She sends Benna to the dressmaker, Grace Eliat, to sell the gown back for what she can. Waiting for the scalding water to cool, Neema considers begging Gaida for mercy after the afterparty. Without it, she fears she will never find work again.

She pulls down Tales of the Raven, a book she discovered years earlier in the imperial tombs after guards locked her inside overnight. Cold and frightened, she prayed to the Raven and found the book, which she hugged to her chest. When she brought it home, its pages began turning themselves. It revealed itself as an enchanted book, which she suspects is from the Hidden Library of Helia. Whenever she felt “alone, afraid, abandoned” (127), it would show her its stories.

Tonight, it shows her the story, “Empress Yasthala and the Cursed Blade.” Three days after Yasthala ended the war, her husband Eyart was murdered. When the Raven could not bring him back, Yasthala nearly died by suicide. The Raven stopped her by showing two futures: Her death would trigger the Return of the Eight, while living would preserve peace. She chose to live and instead cursed the knife that killed Eyart—naming it Hurun-tooth—and gave it to the Tigers of Anat-hurun to guard. If it ever took another life, “the Eight will Return in blood and fire” (131).

After Neema’s bath, she finds the book moved to her pillow, open to a writhing illustration: The Awakening Dragon of the Last Return. Uneasy, she rushes to the throne room to see Shimmer’s masterpiece.

In the throne room, Neema stares up at The Awakening Dragon of the Last Return. As the painted dragon begins to writhe, she tells it to destroy her.

Cain arrives, assuming she has taken drugs and is having visions. He smells Dragonscale oil on her and panics when he realizes she is covered in it. Neema believes someone poisoned her bath oil. Cain drags her to the Garden at the Edge of the World and orders her into the fishpond to scrub it off while he fetches clothes from the gardener’s shed. By the time she dresses, the hallucinations are fading. As he escorts her back, Neema hears hissing from his pack and accuses him of stealing Pink-Pink. Cain admits it was payback for her breaking his heart years ago.

Later Neema runs into Fenn after parting ways with Cain, who states that her dismissal is a blessing in disguise. He only came to court to help Bersun restore peace after Andren’s rebellion and has always seen the island as a prison. For him, leaving would be freedom. For Neema—who has nothing beyond the island—it feels like exile.